concrete, basalt, speakers, 5-channel sound-composition (44:23)

This work was part of a group exhibition at the Mühlheim am Main water tower as part of the “Sound Art in Industrial Culture” series organized by the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Cultural Fund.

 

Concrete, which provides the water tower with the necessary stability, was used in this installation to cast fragile sculptures. Their shapes refer to the volcanic origin of the basalt rock, which serves merely as cladding in the tower, but as a support for a loudspeaker in the artwork. The materials are thus deprived of their architectural functionality, creating new perspectives on their human use.

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The source material for the sound composition consists mainly of sound recordings of the pipes in the water tower, which were made using special microphones provided by the municipal utilities and indirectly convey the otherwise silent passage of water through the tower. The sounds are supplemented by elements from the artist's earlier works relating to volcanism and a field recording of the power line that now runs through the former basalt quarry in Dietesheim.